Global Structures

Mission Statement

There is nothing normal or inevitable about the way in which the world is arranged. The globe as we know it is a historical product: Its current structures used not to exist – they have emerged over time – and they will eventually give way to other structures. The world is not a natural composite of competing and/or cooperating nation-states. Nor is it an even playing field, in which individuals (currently just over seven billion of us humans) compete for resources, power and recognition through a gallant and fair game so that the best win and the undeserving lose. The world is, instead, an ever more tightly interconnected set of hierarchies. It forms a historical system that produces its own racialized and gendered inequalities, economic injustices, power differentials, new cultural, religious and aesthetic forms of expression, conflicts, resistance and change. The recognition that a powerful global process is driving the gentrification of poor neighborhoods, shaping the financial crisis in Europe, or farmers’ suicide in India, mass displacement of indigenous communities, or transnational uprisings opened tremendous possibilities for sociological investigation. Our aim is to build competence, create bridges through scholarly engagements with other disciplines and global centers across the World, and make creative contributions in this burgeoning field. Our faculty and students engage these questions through their interest in:

Race, localities and racializations,

Gender, sexualities and sexisms,

Geopolitics, nationalisms, imperialisms,

Alternatives to capitalism,

Environmental crisis and preservation

World and global histories,

Global-local memories and politics of historiography,

Migration and transnationalism,

Scale, space and place,

Representations and repressions,

Internationalisms and solidarities,

Oppression and resistance,

War, militarism and peace –